<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>dark web by rocket_rach</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22445092">dark web</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocket_rach/pseuds/rocket_rach'>rocket_rach</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>different universe, different family [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>World's Finest (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/F, Gen, helena plays dick like a goddamn fiddle, lesbians doing lesbian stuff!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 13:13:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,233</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22445092</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocket_rach/pseuds/rocket_rach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Helena wants to know why so many of Bruce's kids died, and looking ever so lively</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson &amp; Helena Wayne, Karen Starr/Helena Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>different universe, different family [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>dark web</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“How many kids does this Bruce have?” Karen asks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Helena looks over to her girlfriend. She’s gorgeous, as always, and she has to force her eyes back to her screen. They’d had their fun. Helena wasn’t sure she could handle another round. Damned Kryptonian stamina. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Helena yanks the plush velvet blanket from Karen and pulls it over her shoulder as she taps through the files she hacked from the Batcomputer. The mattress shifts as Karen scoots closer, resting her cheek on her shoulder as she reads over the dossiers. The first Robin came to Batman’s side not long after the Dark Knight’s debut. Then, there was another, and another after that, and another after that, and some other kids that didn’t go by Robin but still fought by his side. This Batman had built an army. She chewed the inside of her cheek as she began to cross-reference the known Wayne wards and the Robins. Most of it added up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The bits that didn’t add up? All of the dead children.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The dead children, that for all appearances, were mostly alive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Keep chewing on that cheek and there’ll be less of you for me to kiss,” Karen said softly as she pinched her cheek. “Talk to me, Hel.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jason Todd, deceased. Dick Grayson, deceased. Damian Wayne, deceased. Stephanie Brown, deceased. Those are the ones that have been publicized. But in the last few years Jason Todd has been seen helping kids in Crime Alley. Dick Grayson was unmasked and then killed. But this world’s Huntress has kept in contact with me. He’s a superspy now. Stephanie Brown is running the streets as Spoiler. She’s going to school with Tim Drake. Damian’s the only one who hasn’t returned from the dead. That’s not even including what happened to Barbara Gordon. The Joker showed up at her doorstep and crippled her.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karen’s quiet. Her fingers begin combing through Helena’s dark hair, nails tugging gently at the knotted ends. She waits. Helena is processing, and interrupting that processing can result in one very exasperated Wayne on her hands. She keeps pulling at those knots, watching as the hair peels away and breaks and wishing there was a way she could stop Helena from breaking herself. Because as much as Karen wants to go home, go back to Earth 2, Helena hasn’t been this </span>
  <em>
    <span>motivated </span>
  </em>
  <span>in years. She’s focused again. She’s focused because she’s found a family, and it’s so much more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karen just isnt sure where </span>
  <em>
    <span>she </span>
  </em>
  <span>fits into that family. But Helena is processing. There’s a time and place, she tells herself as her arms curl around Helena’s waist. A time and place that isn’t now, in her penthouse with nothing but a plush blanket covering them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think I need to talk to Dick Grayson,” Helena pulls her from her thoughts. “Not now. But soon. It shouldn’t be hard to find him. I already know he’s working for a group called Spyral. Stupid name. Hey,” she turns in Karen’s arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Something’s wrong,” Helena murmurs after scanning her girl’s face. She reaches up, calloused fingers tripping over impervious skin. “Tell me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She can tell that Karen wants to. She watches the muscles in her jaw clench. Helena is good at reading people. If she had a superpower, it’d be that. But she doesn’t like to read Karen constantly. But she’s upset. Helena hates it when she’s upset.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not right now,” Karen murmurs as she leans into Hel’s touch. “Later. I promise you, okay?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Promises are Helena’s favorite currency, so she doesn’t push. Instead, she pulls Karen’s face down and kisses those dear, sweet, full lips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karen leaves in the morning. She’s off to go check something at the office. That leaves Helena plenty of time to find Dick Grayson. Her fingers fly as she hacks into surveillance system after surveillance system. She watches the heat signatures on traffic grids, aligns satellites to ping information to her, taps into the darkweb and records arms purchases, and records all possible sites where Spyral could be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The chip in her hand crunches.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s all a dead end. She brushes the crumbs onto the floor. She could reach out to Not Dad. But if Dick Grayson is dead, and she approaches him and asks for his help finding his dead son, how would he react?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If the broken man she hugged in the graveyard is anything to go off of, he wouldn’t react well at all. But something about this guy is telling her she’d get answers. Answers to questions she’s been ignoring since she met Damian.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Helena picks up the suitcase she keeps stashed under the bed. She writes Karen a quick note, promising to be back soon and please, please,</span>
  <em>
    <span> please</span>
  </em>
  <span>, do not interfere unless she’s dying very quickly. Once that’s all squared away, Helena’s off. She’d chartered a plane while she was tracking body armor and surveillance equipment. Gotham International was </span>
  <em>
    <span>the </span>
  </em>
  <span>airport for her needs. The taxi dropped her at the Delta terminal. After it left, Helena headed towards the security fence that lined the tarmac.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Helena Kyle?” A guard asked as she jumped down from the chainlink. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The one and only. Are we all set?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just sent the first payment. You’ll receive the rest when I touch down in one piece.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then we’ll be on our way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She touches down in England first. It’s a simple plan. Just work her way east. But it ends up that she doesn’t even have to leave England.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because Dick Grayson is waiting for her at Heathrow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he looks </span>
  <em>
    <span>pissed</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’s ecstatic. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ve gotten sloppy in your death,” Helena says as she chucks her bag at him. “Be a doll and carry that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He catches it. Then, “We can’t talk here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, you sound like him,” She groans as she follows him to the motorcycle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They ride for a few hours until he pulls down a gravel drive. Dick leads her through sheep fields, cooing at the curious animals all the way to the small hut on the hill. Dick pulls a seat out for her, but he doesn’t sit. Instead, he sets to work. The gas range is lit, a kettle is place, and bags of tea of placed in front of her. Each package bears the Pennyworth family crest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Al would kill me if I didn’t offer you some tea before we begin. What kind do you like?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Green herbal infusion,” she answers. “I’m learning that Alfred is a universal constant. Why are you not dead?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Short answer? Bruce can’t let me die. Why were you looking for me?” Dick sets the blue and white teacup in front of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I met Damian. Then I met Bruce. In my universe, it’s just my dad, my mom, and I who fight crime. I wanted to see his family,” she pauses to sip the tea. This Alfred blends his teas differently than her Alfred, but it’s still delicious. “But the thing is? So many of you are dead, or were dead. But here you are, and Jason Todd is looking very spritely for being a few years dead. If you can come back, and so can Todd, then why hasn’t Damian come back as well?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacup Dick’s holding trembles in his hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s driving himself into the ground, isn’t he?” Helena whispers. “He’s going on a suicide mission.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacup shatters when it hits the floor.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>cowabunga</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>